“Some on our side are so stuck in the Cold War era that they want to tweak Russia all the time and I don’t think that is a good idea.”

It is not the only time Paul has come running to the defense of a despot. Paul defended Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the grounds that he is good for Christians.

His comments come at the moment Vladimir Putin is putting his troops on alert on the Ukraine-Russia border and after months of effort to prevent Russian bullying of Ukraine. The “tweaking” of Russia is consistent with 22 years of American foreign policy. Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute reacted via e-mail: “What a sad day for America when a prominent senator believes that standing for freedom and justice should be labeled 'tweaking.'”

With Rand out of contention, Trump is now the least hawkish of member of the Republican field. Here he is responding to similar castigation from neocon outfits like National Review for not eagerly desiring to humiliate Russia, preferring instead for the US to work amiably with the bear on behalf of Western civilization:

Compare this to NR's Russian approach, which is mostly indistinguishable from the rest of the Republican field:

A new Russia strategy must be the projection of military strength in Europe: establishing a permanent U.S. military presence in the Baltic region, expanding joint training exercises with military allies in Eastern Europe, and providing arms to help the Ukrainian government resist the Russian invasion. Alongside this approach should be a robust reiteration of America’s commitment to NATO’s Article 5.

Article 5 is the one about collective defence, where an attack on one member is to be treated as an attack on all members. If Russia does something one of it's neighbors like Estonia doesn't approve of, the Russians must be prepared for US military retaliation!

What National Review really wants is for Ukraine to became a full-fledged NATO member so that, instead of acting collectively to thwart the invasion of the Global South into the Global North, we can focus instead on killing hundreds of thousands of Russians. After all, they're too intolerant of homosexuality (for white people), so they deserve what's coming to them.

Beyond his aversion to rekindling the Cold War, the establishment forces opposing Trump at every turn are the same ones who did all they could to destroy Ron Paul's 2008 and 2012 campaigns, to say nothing of destroying his impeccable character. This is why guys like Lew Rockwell, who has almost nothing in common with Trump, tacitly want him to win the nomination.

The Republican party, as currently constituted, needs to burn to the ground so that out of the ashes may rise Trumpian populism and Paulian libertarianism, among many other strands of dissident rightism, to occupy space that the neocons have monopolized and zealously guarded for the last couple of decades.

We should stop giving Cruz benefit of the doubt as the "least bad" option next to Trump. He is a full-on Neocon and everybody knows it. He's just parroting Trump like stuff because he knows people like it. If Cruz is ever commander in chief, we're getting war with Iran.

Ricky Vaughn is a great wit and a prolific producer of rapid fire commentary that, despite it's frequency, persistently manages to be a great mix of profundity and entertainment.

Regarding Cruz, yes, there is Trump and then there is everybody else who isn't Trump. In addition to being a referendum on a wall, the GOP primary is also a referendum on the Republican party's political machine, where the puppet master cheap labor lobbies and Israel-firsters instruct their marionettes to mouth a few masturbatory remarks about social values and border security for a couple of months before packing the empty rhetoric away for four years until its brought out again.

OT, did you take any of your Bush No off the table on predictit? I think they might have taken the price graphs down now to relieve server load during the New Hampshire primary, but I took a look at those after Iowa and realized I should have had some open orders. Bush was down to $.03 at one point.

I hated and still hate Communism, and have no particular love for the current Russian government, but... Jesus Christ, military bases in the Baltics?!? Do these idiots have any idea how the Russians would react to that? They are paranoid anyway, and this would be the equivalent to Russia putting bases in Mexico, and enrolling Canada in the old Warsaw Pact.

Either NR actually wants WWIII, or they are dangerous idiots. Or possibly both.

I didn't sell. I'm more confident in the underlying indicators than I am in day-to-day movement, and it would've just been making $50 or so. I'll just hold that until it cashes out as a slight hedge against missing on Trump.